Yesterday afternoon was glorious (from a northern-Maine-in-November perspective) and I spent it birding until dark (4 PM). Its been a while since I've done this.
-- The usual goose roost ponds were surprisingly full of birds for so late in the season and I encountered large feeding flocks in several fields.
I saw about 6 thousand geese in my travels, with the largest assemblage (of about 1,800) being at Trafton Lake in Limestone. The birds were crowded in the distant eastern end, so a scope was necessary to tease out a couple Cackling Geese from the crowd. There were no other notable geese species in the flock, but a drake Canvasback drifting among the horde was a big surprise.
This was only my second or third-ever Canvasback I've seen in northern Maine. Though the bird was distant, I got a couple of digiscoped pictures that show the bird's chestnut colored, sock puppet head, black breast and white body: http://ebird.org/ebird/me/view/checklist/S32624638
Other notables in Limestone were a big flock of Snow Buntings that passed over as I was leaving Trafton Lake Park and yet another Cackling Goose in the pond down town: http://ebird.org/ebird/me/view/checklist/S32624661
Big flocks of Bohemian Waxwings have shown up now in central Aroostook County and about 80 of these were working on the fruit trees in front of the Caribou Rec Center.
It seems the gull migration is near peak and Collins Pond in Caribou had a fantastic mass of bathing gulls as the sun was going down. There were six species seen including my first of fall Glaucous Gull (a first cycle), an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull and a seasonal high count of at least 13 Iceland Gulls (one adult but the rest were first cycle).
The gulls were constantly arriving and leaving in small groups as they congregated to bathe and drink before heading to their night roosts around town. The pink and orange sunset lent a rosy wash to the gull's breasts and had me thinking about Ross's Gulls and a trip to the Arctic. Someday...
B
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